10 Years ago yesterday...

This picture was taken at my apartment in the spring of 1999.

David and I met on July 24, 1998. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago already! Time really flies by. We were both 18 at the time. I was a sophomore at BYU living in an off campus apartment with Melissa for the Summer term. I had gone home to California for the Spring term and decided to go back to BYU only a couple weeks before the Summer term began. David had just graduated from High School and came out to BYU for the Summer term to begin his freshman year. Pioneer Day fell on a Friday that year, and since it is a state holiday for Utah, BYU didn't hold any classes on that day. Kristine and I decided to plan a camping trip to Bear Lake for the long weekend. Kristine and I had a really good friend from CA who had just arrived at BYU for the Summer term and so we invited him and he invited 2 of his friends from his floor in Desert Towers, BYU on campus living. Kristine's sister and her niece also came camping. So all the girls drove up to Bear Lake in Kristine's car and we met up with the guys at the camp site. They were already there waiting for us, since we stopped to eat out for dinner. They got there first thinking we were bringing dinner for them. (Oh the days before everyone had cell phones!) I remember the first time I saw David. He was leaning against a red Geo Metro. I think it was his sister Amy's car. He was tall and cute and had a big smile on his face. We quickly set up a couple of tents. We sat around the fire and talked. I think I remember there being fireworks over the lake. Some in our group got tired and went to sleep in one of the tents, and I think David's roommate fell asleep outside. So Kristine, Carl, David, and I ended up staying up all night. I think we drove up to the Idaho border, just to say we had been in Idaho. We laughed a lot. We played the infamous game of truth or dare. Kristine- remember Carl doing the "Truffle Shuffle"?! I still laugh about that. And it's true that I dared David to kiss someone, and he kissed me. Needless to say David and I hit it off from the start. We stayed at my BYU roommate, Andrea's, house in Logan Saturday night. There were more fireworks that night at a nearby park. David and I had a great weekend. There were sparks and we had an instant connection. I remember when we all got back to Provo on Sunday he said he would call me, and I thought to myself, "We'll see...". But sure enough he did call the very next day. We became an item quickly. We spent most days together that summer, and I didn't do very well in my Marketing class that term. He didn't have a car and neither did I, so he would literally run over to my apartment from D.T.. (My roommates teased me a lot for dating a freshman, even though I'm only 4 1/2 months older!) We dated up until he left for his mission, not really seriously because he was leaving for 2 years. I never said I would "wait" for him. But we did write while he was gone, and we sent tapes back and forth. While he was in the M.T.C. I sent packages. David would tell me before he left for his mission, and in his tapes, that when he got back from the Philippines that he would "marry me and we would have 10 kids". I would laugh. It was hard to picture that when we were both only 19. I did date other people while he was gone, but would think about David. We really did "click" and just fit together. So I was definitely around when he came home off his mission. I wasn't exactly sure when he was coming home. I called his house before I left for Ireland for a few months. His mom answered the phone, took a message and actually gave it to him when he came home weeks later. We emailed while I was in Ireland. He even called me there once. As soon as I was back in the states we talked on the phone and emailed since he was in Missouri until January when he would return to BYU for Winter term. On Jan. 2, 2002 we went out on our first date post mission and have been together ever since.